ambassador susan rice, who, five days after the attack, denied it was al qaeda. using cia public talking points that dropped the al qaeda reference. >> and she did entirely the responsible thing in answering questions based on what was unclassified. >> reporter: but rice had a motive to spin the story on "meet the press." barack obama running for reelection, he might name her secretary of state. >> this is an administration led by a president who said when he ran for office that he would take the fight to al qaeda. we have decimated al qaeda. >> reporter: republicans still charge rice with distortion. >> she knew at that point in time that al qaeda was very likely responsible in part or in the whole for the death of ambassador stevens. >> reporter: petraeus knew it was al qaeda. he agreed to put out the different account. but not, he said, for political reasons. petraeus told lawmakers the cia just wanted to keep secret what it knew, and how it knew it. but republicans up here are not buying that was rice's motive. i'm steve handelsman, news4, capitol hill. >>> t